Well, we did not go to the beach to visit Karen and Michael today as we’d hoped to do. The stars just didn’t end up aligning properly to encourage that scenario to work out.

However, we tried to quench our disappointment with other fun (and productive) activities that we wouldn’t have gotten to do otherwise:

1. See Russian Dolls (Les Poupées Russes) at the Avalon. I loved L’Auberge Espagnole (Russian Dolls picks up a couple years after L’Auberge left off) when it came out a few years ago and the ability to see foreign, art, and limited-release movies like this is one of the best parts of living in the city.
2. Shop. I went to the farmers’ market this weekend and came home with corn on the cob, shallots, potatoes, seconds tomatoes (Rudi wants to make gazpacho), squash, peaches (to make a pie), milk (to use next week when we come home from vacation), cheddar, and a pepper. We also got to buy some of the provisions we’ll need for the camping trip.
3. Cook. Dinner was a broccoli-cheddar quiche followed by leftover cherry cobbler topped with French vanilla ice cream. All (except the ice cream) made by me.
4. Clean. (Okay, this part was not as much fun as the rest, but it was necessary.) I am ashamed (but not so much as not to share) that we have not finished cleaning up following last month’s floods. But today the bottom futon went back on the bed. The last chair we’d been meaning to drag out to the street got picked up by someone who was excited to have hand-me-down furniture. Laundry was done, including some winter stuff that ought to have gone into seasonal storage months ago. I found that we own a butcher’s block under all the mail that had piled up. Rudi was terribly productive and packed all his vacation clothes already. (I am not that productive, although I have decided on what knitting project to take with me…) We aren’t done yet, but we’re both feeling much better about where we stand tonight as compared to Friday.

   Two-plus days and counting until vacation….